Being an inventor is all fine and good, but if no one knows what you invented, then it won’t do you much good. You have to get the word out about your creation. Part of that involves coming up with a good name for your invention as well. Something catchy that will stick in people’s minds. And if you’re thinking of naming it after yourself to capitalize on your invention’s popularity and go down in history like Henry Ford, for instance, you may want to think again. Plenty of inventors named things after themselves and were still promptly forgotten, even if their invention has lived on. 

10. Junkers Planes Were Named For Hugo Junkers

Have you ever heard of an airplane called a junker? Right away, whether or not you’ve heard of it, you’re probably thinking it’s a piece of crap. It’s called a junker, that means junk right? Unfortunately for Hugo Junkers, that’s not true.

The actual name of these planes are Junkers, after the inventor. But many people mistake that for the plural of Junker. The Junkers F13 was the first all-metal aircraft that could carry passengers. It was made back in 1913. 

Hugo Junkers made my innovations in civil aviation and is one of the most important founders in the aviation world. He contributed to both military and civil aviation and the work he did is still part of the aviation world today. It’s just that few people outside of the industry know his story and when they hear the name, they often mistake it for a criticism. 

9. Shrapnel is Named For Henry Shrapnel

Most everyone has probably heard of shrapnel before. It refers to fragments of something that has exploded, usually a bomb, but could even be from a gunshot or some other explosion that has sent pieces of dangerous debris flying. Those pieces are shrapnel.

Because shrapnel can be formed from almost anything, most of us wouldn’t consider it an invention. It’s not like someone went out there and made all of those little pieces themselves. However, someone had to come up with the concept. That’s where Henry Shrapnel comes in.

Shrapnel was born in 1761 and was a soldier. He specialized in artillery and, to not put too fine a point on it, horrible ways to hurt people. He invented a kind of artillery shell that would explode before impact and spread smaller projectiles over an area. Modern anti-personnel bombs are made using this concept, devices filled with things like ball bearings or nails that maim and kill in a much larger area than a single explosion by itself would.

8. Nachos Were Named for Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya

About 20% of restaurants have nachos on the menu and they’ve been a staple since they debuted all the way back in 1943. A man named Ignacio Anaya was working at a restaurant called Club Victoria when some customers came in to order food. It may have been an odd time of day but, for whatever reason, the ingredients for the normal menu items were not on hand. Anaya, who was the kitchen manager, made up something on a whim – tortillas cut into chips then fried and topped with jalapenos and grated cheese. He put them under a broiler to melt the cheese and called it nachos especial or Nacho’s Special. Why? Because Nacho was his nickname, a shortened form of his real name Ignacio. 

The customers loved it, and soon it spread to other nearby restaurants. Within a few years recipes were being shared in cookbooks. Nacho’s became nachos, and it was soon forgotten that the word referred to a man and not the chips.

7. Pap Smear Was Named After a Man

A pap test or pap smear is a test that involves scraping cells from a woman’s cervix to look for abnormalities which can help diagnose cervical cancer. It’s a very important test that is recommended for all women in their 20s at least once every three years. 

The test, if you’ve never experienced one, is as uncomfortable as it sounds. Not necessarily painful, though it can be, but not pleasant, either. What most people don’t think about is the name. What the heck is a pap and why is it being smeared?

The full name is Papanicolaou test. That name comes from George Papanicolaou, the man who invented the test. Papanicolaou was born in Greece in 1883 and went through more jobs than seems entirely normal for a historically famous doctor. He was a doctor, of course, but also a rug salesperson, a violinist, a soldier, a zoologist and more.

In America his medical work was with guinea pigs where he discovered he could use a smear of their vaginal secretions to determine their reproductive cycles. He started similar work on humans and discovered he could detect abnormalities that were precursors to cancer. And the rest is history. 

6. Popsicles Are Technically Named After Frank Epperson

In the dog days of summer, few things are more refreshing than a frosty, sweet popsicle. Some people just call these ice pops. Because of that, the name sounds pretty generic. Sicle is like an icicle, we all get that. Pop because it’s a pop, right? But what the hell is a pop?

Popsicles were invented by 11-year-old Frank Epperson. Right away you may question how they’re named after him but hold up, it’ll make sense in a moment. 

According to legend, Frank had been stirring a drink with a stick but forgot it on the porch on a frosty night and it froze. When he found it later, it was a frozen treat with its own handle and thus history was made. But he was 11, so it didn’t go anywhere. By the time he patented the idea as an adult, no one else had thought of it so he named them Eppsicles. Gross.

His kids agreed. No one wanted to eat an Eppsicle, and they never called it that. They called them popsicles because they were pop’s cicles, as in “Hey pop, make me one of your cicles.” So even though it’s not his given name, their pop took their advice and changed it.

5. The Saxophone Was Named After Adolphe Sax

Most of the instruments used in modern music date back a long time. Guitar, the word, can be traced all the way back to Greek origins and was even then used to describe a stringed instrument. The name “drum” goes back to the 15th century and may be from Middle Dutch, where it seems to have onomatopoeic origins. And then there’s the saxophone.

The saxophone only dates back to 1846 when it was patented by Adolphe Sax. The son of an instrument maker, Sax had been surrounded by instruments much of his life, so inventing a new one seemed natural. His creation was meant to be an improvement on the bass clarinet.

Despite the popularity of his namesake instrument, and even the resurrection of his company, Sax made very little money in his life and friends had to petition the government for financial aid on his behalf in the year that he died.

4. James Salisbury Gave Us the Salisbury Steak

Walk down any frozen food aisle in any grocery store in America and you will doubtlessly find at least a half dozen kinds of Salisbury steak, usually in TV dinners. Once upon a time this food was so popular you could get it in cans and was even part of a health-food craze in the late 1800s.

Salisbury steak was invented by Dr. James Salisbury, part of his plan to treat soldiers during the Civil War. Salisbury was an early proponent of germ theory and also diet being linked to health. Not novel ideas today but they were back then.

During the Civil War, stomach ailments were not just annoying, they were deadly. Salisbury proposed beefsteak and coffee as a cure-all and the Salisbury Steak was born. Part of the genius of the steak was that it was grilled. Salisbury was promoting protein as having health benefits and his beef patty, because it was grilled instead of boiled like most other meats of the day, kept all of its B vitamins and really was healthier than other dishes at the time.

It got a tremendous boost during World War One when no one wanted to eat the German-sounding “Hamburg” steak and everything was renamed for Salisbury, making Salisbury steak a part of the language and culture ever since. Even to this day, soldiers eat Salisbury steak or something like it when deployed. 

3. Ritalin Was Named After the Inventor’s Wife

Of all the products you expect to be named for a person, a prescription medication popularly used to treat ADHD probably isn’t one of them. Most modern drugs tend to have gibberish sounding names. There’s a whole process behind giving drugs a brand name that involves ensuring it doesn’t sound like another drug on the market, it can’t make the drug sound better or more effective than another drug, and so on.

Ritalin would probably still pass those rules today, but it didn’t need to since it was developed back in the 1940s. The proper name for it is methylphenidate, but that’s a mouthful so Ritalin became the brand name that was chosen by Leandro Panizzon, the man who both created and self-tested it.

Panizzon didn’t just try the drug himself, he gave it to his wife Marguerite. She played tennis and found that the drug helped improve her game. The results were very quick, something Ritalin is known for, and it proved to Panizzon that he had come up with something worthwhile. In honor of his wife’s help in testing, he named it after her, using her nickname Rita. 

2. Ben Gay Was Invented By Jules Bengue

Bengay is a pain relieving cream meant to treat muscle and joint pain. You rub some in; it warms up; you feel pain relief. It’s been around since the late 1800s as well. The unusual name and the age are probably the reason many people aren’t aware it was named after the man who created it. More or less.

The original Bengay formula was created by Dr. Jules Bengue, a French physician. It was marketed in France for years before the doctor took the formulation to the United States. From 1898 until 1933 it was sold as “Baume Analgesique Bengue ” or “Analgesique Baume” or other similar names. In 1933 the words “Ben-Gay” were added underneath, seemingly to aid Americans with the French pronunciation of the doctor’s name.

Eventually Ben-Gay became the only name, with a smaller description of it as an analgesic balm, and finally the name was changed to the unhyphenated Bengay that is on the labels today.

1. M&M’s are Named for Their Creator and Investor

M&M’s are one of the most popular candies in the world and, so the story goes, were inspired by candies eaten by soldiers during the Spanish Civil War. Nowadays the Mars company makes 400 million of the little chocolates every single day. They come in many varieties including plain, peanut, almond, crispy, coconut, mint, dark chocolate, white chocolate and more. Each one is stamped with the instantly recognizable “M” on the candy shell. So what do those Ms mean?

Each M is the initial of a different person. One is Forrest Mars, son of Frank Mars who founded the Mars candy company. The other is Bruce Murrie, son of the founder of Hershey’s, who invested in Mars. They teamed up to make M&Ms and the candy is named, or at least initialed, in their honor.

It’s amazing how many people nowadays have bizarre and unusual names. Most changed their names via deed poll, but a few were born with that given name, and very few have gone on to live successful lives regardless of their name. The following people have fantastic or apt names, all are their original birth names, and all have achieved some sort of fame outside of their name.

1. Canaan Banana

Canaan Banana served as the first President of Zimbabwe from 18 April 1980 until 31 December 1987. A Methodist minister, he held the largely ceremonial office of the presidency while his eventual successor, Robert Mugabe, served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. Banana was later convicted on charges of sodomy and imprisoned. He died 2003. Mr Banana is pictured above on the right. To his left is evil despot Robert Mugabe.

2. Praise-God Barebone

Praise-God Barebone was an English leather-seller and radical preacher. He is best known for being elected to the Nominated Assembly of the English republic, in 1653. The Assembly was known commonly as Barebone’s Parliament due to its domination by religious and political eccentrics such as Praise-God, who was a Fifth Monarchist and believed in the imminent end of the world and return of Jesus. He died in 1679.

3. Walter Russell Brain

Baron Brain was an eminent neurologist who authored the standard work on the subject, “Brain’s Diseases of the Nervous System”, and long time editor of the neurological medical journal Brain. He was knighted in 1952 and made Baron Brain in 1962. He died in 1966.

4. Marc Breedlove

Marc Breedlove is a Professor of Neuroscience at Michigan State University. He is known for his work into the study of sexual attraction and sexual behaviour. His most influential work was in discovering that lesbians have a more masculine digit ratio than straight women, a finding that has been replicated in his and many other labs and which indicates that lesbians, on average, are exposed to more prenatal testosterone than are straight women.

5. Thursday October Christian

Thursday October Christian was the first son of Fletcher Christian (leader of the Mutiny on the Bounty) and his Tahitian wife Maimiti. He was conceived on Tahiti, and was the first child born on the Pitcairn Islands after the mutineers took refuge on the island. Born on Thursday the 14th of October, he was given his unusual name because Fletcher Christian wanted his son to have “no name that will remind me of England”. He died in 1831.

6. Thomas Crapper

Crapper was a noted English plumber who made significant contributions towards the improvement of the flushing toilet. He held many toilet related patents, including the floating ballcock, and founded the plumbing company Crapper and Co. He died in 1910. Mr Crapper is pictured above.

7. Prince Octopus Dzanie

Prince Octopus is an amateur boxer from Ghana who competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

8. Argelico Fucks

Fucks is a Brazilian professional footballer. He won the Rio Grande do Sul State league, the Brazilian cup, the Brazilian Champions Cup, the Conmebol Cup plus the Portuguese league, cup and Supercup. He also represented Brazil internationally at the Under-20 level winning both the South American Championship and the Youth World Cup.

9. Learned Hand

Learned Hand was an influential United States judge and judicial philosopher. He served on the Southern District Court of New York and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Hand has reportedly been quoted more often than any other lower-court judge by legal scholars and by the Supreme Court of the United States. He was a stronger supporter of civil rights, civil liberties and judicial restraint. He was an expert in statutory law in patents, torts and antitrust. His writings remain admired in the history of legal literature. He died in 1961.

10. Ima Hogg

Ima Hogg, known as “The First Lady of Texas”, was an American philanthropist, patron and collector of the arts, and one of the most respected women in Texas during the 20th century. She received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Southwestern University, and was a large contributor to Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Very wealthy due to her family’s oil business, Hogg founded the Houston Child Guidance Center, which provides counselling for disturbed children and their families. She also established the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at the University of Texas at Austin in 1940. Hogg successfully ran for a seat on the Houston School Board in 1943, where she worked to remove gender and race as criteria for determining pay and established art education programs for black students. Hogg never married, and died in 1975.

11. Rusty Kuntz

Kuntz is a former Major League Baseball player and currently first base coach for the Kansas City Royals. He was part of the Detroit Tigers that defeated the San Diego Padres in the 1984 World Series. Mr Kuntz is pictured above.

12. Chuck Long

Chuck Long is the head football coach at San Diego State University. He played quarterback in college at the University of Iowa and professionally with the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams. He is an inductee of the College Football Hall of Fame.

13. Adolf Lu Hitler Marak

Adolf Lu Hitler R. Marak is a politician in the state of Meghalaya, India. It may be noted that his name is not particularly curious within Meghalaya, where other local politicians are named Lenin R. Marak, Stalin L. Nangmin, Frankenstein W. Momin, or Tony Curtis Lyngdoh. Hitler Marak told the Hindustan Times: “Maybe my parents liked the name and hence christened me Hitler… I am happy with my name, although I don’t have any dictatorial tendencies.”

14. Ten Million

Ten Million was a minor league baseball player who played for various teams in the Northwestern League in the years prior to World War I. He is most famous for appearing on the first set of Obak baseball cards where he became very popular due to his name. He died in 1964.

15. Chris Moneymaker

Chris Moneymaker is an American poker player who won the main event at the 2003 World Series of Poker. His victory is generally credited for being one of the main catalysts for the poker boom in the years following his win. He is one of the most successful poker players currently touring with total live tournament winnings of over $2.8 million.

16. Revilo Oliver

Revilo Oliver was an American professor of Classical philology, Spanish, and Italian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who wrote and polemicized extensively for White Nationalist causes. Oliver also briefly received national notoriety in the 1960s when he published an article following the John F. Kennedy assassination, suggesting that Lee Harvey Oswald was part of a Soviet conspiracy against the United States; in response, he was called to testify before the Warren Commission. As per family tradition, his name is a palindrome. He died in 1994. Mr Oliver is pictured above.

17. Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville

Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville was British statesman and close friend of Benjamin Disraeli. His name arose through successive generations of people with double barrelled surnames adding and adding instead of compromising. He died in 1889.

18. Peerless Price

Peerless Price is an American football wide receiver who is currently a free agent. He was originally drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the second round of the 1999 NFL Draft, and has also played for the Atlanta Falcons and the Dallas Cowboys.

19. Jaime Sin

Jaime Sin was a Filipino bishop who later became archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church of the Philippines and was henceforth known as Cardinal Sin. He was only the third native Filipino Archbishop of Manila, following centuries of Spanish, American and Irish episcopacy. Cardinal Sin died in 2005.

20. Wolfgang Wolf

Wolfgang Wolf is a German football coach who once managed Wolfsburg FC.

The American Civil War was fought between 1861 and 1865, and it holds the distinction of being the first modern war, but there’s more to it than that. The conflict saw more American casualties than any other in the nation’s history, and it tore the country apart.

When the Democratic southern states seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America, a large number of military officers followed, and they formed the CSA’s military command.

More than 150 years after the conflict came to an end, ten bases throughout the American south still bear the names of some of the Confederacy’s greatest military leaders.

10 Monuments More Controversial Than The Confederate Statues

10 Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia – Ambrose Powell Hill Jr.

Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, was founded in 1941 outside the town of Bowling Green, Virginia. The post was established as an Army training facility, and it remains one to this day. The Fort is primarily used as an arms training center, and it is used by all branches of the military, as well as members of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, federal, state, and local law enforcement for weapons training.

The Fort was named in honor of Ambrose Powell Hill, a Confederate General from Virginia, who fought for the United States Army in the Mexican-American and Seminole Wars. He joined the Confederacy when the Civil War began and went on to serve in some of the war’s greatest conflicts. Hill was the commander of the “Light Division,” and one of Stonewall Jackson’s most proficient subordinates.

When Jackson died at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Hill was promoted to Lieutenant General to take command of General Lee’s Third Corps, which he led during the Gettysburg Campaign. He was killed in combat during the Union Army’s push during the Third Battle of Petersburg in 1865, shortly before the war came to a close.^[1]

9 Fort Benning, Georgia – Henry Benning

Fort Benning, Georgia, is the home of the U.S. Army Infantry School, the Maneuver Center of Excellence, Armor School, and more. Ft. Benning supports more than 120,000 personnel, their family members, veterans, and support staff, making it a significant Georgian base. The Fort was established to provide Basic Training to Soldiers in 1918.

Fort Benning was named in honor of Henry Benning, the commander of “Benning’s Brigade” during the Civil War. Benning was an opponent of abolition and the emancipation of slaves, which put him strongly in favor of secession following the election of 1860. He served in the U.S. Congress for the Democratic Party in 1851 and remained in politics up to succession, but opted not to serve as a cabinet member in the Confederacy. He instead joined the Confederate Army as a Colonel of the 17th Georgia Infantry in 1861.

Benning attained the rank of Brigadier General, and he led his forces against General Grant during the Overland Campaign. He remained in the fight up to the bitter end. Benning was heartbroken when Confederacy was defeated, and he was one of the last officers to lead his men to the surrender ceremony in April 1865.^[2]

8 Fort Bragg, North Carolina – Braxton Bragg

Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is known as being the largest military installation in the world by population, as it supports 50,000 active-duty personnel at any given time. The Fort is located outside Fayetteville and is the home of the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, US Special Operation Command, and many more units.

The Fort was established in 1918 to train artillery personnel, and it was named in honor of North Carolina native Braxton Bragg. Bragg served as an officer in the U.S. Army during the Second Seminole and Mexican-American Wars before joining the Confederacy despite being opposed to secession. He was serving as a Colonel in the Louisiana Militia in 1860, and the following year, he was commissioned as a Brigadier General of the Confederate States Army and given command of forces in Pensacola, Florida.

He served in numerous campaigns throughout the war, including the Battles for Chattanooga, the Battle of Chickamauga, and many more. He became an advisor to President Davis and was one of the people credited with finally convincing him that the Confederacy’s cause was lost, which ultimately led to the surrender of the CSA and the end of the war.^[3]

7 Fort Gordon, Georgia – John Brown Gordon

Fort Gordon, Georgia, was established as Camp Gordon in 1917 as the training grounds for the 82nd Division. It was upgraded to a Fort in 1941 and has since become home of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, the Cyber Corps, and more.

Camp Gordon was named in honor of John Brown Gordon, a Confederate officer who joined the CSA without any prior military experience. Though he lacked the knowledge of many of his peers, he was elected Captain of the 6th Alamaba Infantry Regiment. By 1862, he was serving as a Colonel, having seen combat at Seven Pines. Gordon had a knack for being wounded, and during the Battle of Antietam, he was hit multiple times in his arm and leg, but he continued to fight while refusing to go to the read. General Lee was impressed by his fortitude, and after he recovered, he was promoted to Brigadier General.

Gordon continued to lead his men up to the end of the war, having charged the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. He officially surrendered his troops soon after, on April 12, 1865. Following the war, he entered politics in strict opposition to Reconstruction. He served as a U.S. Senator for the Democratic Party and served as the 53rd Governor of Georgia.^[4]

6 Fort Hood, Texas – John Bell Hood

Fort Hood, Texas, was founded in January 1942, so the Army could take advantage of the open terrain to test tank destroyers during World War II. Fort Hood is the most populous military base in the world, and it’s also one of the largest by area, as it encompasses 214,000 acres of land. It’s primarily used as an HQ for the III Corps, the 1st Cavalry Division, and other cavalry units.

Fort Hood gets its name from John Bell Hood, a notoriously brave and aggressive officer who was trained at the United States Military Academy. He served only briefly in the U.S. Army before resigning his commission immediately following the Battle of Fort Sumpter, which kicked off the Civil War. The native Kentuckian’s home state was neutral at the time, so he opted to serve in Texas.

Hood was promoted to Colonel in September 1860 and was given command of the 4th Texas Infantry Regiment. He served in numerous battles, including the Battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chicamauga, and many more. He was promoted to General temporarily in July 1864 and eventually returned to the rank of Lieutenant General for the duration of the conflict.^[5]

Top 10 Surprising Confederates

5 Fort Pickett, Virginia – George Pickett

Fort Pickett, Virginia, is a Virginia Army National Guard post situated outside the town of Blackstone. It is the home of the Army National Guard Maneuver Training Center, and it was established in 1941 for the purpose of simultaneously training more than one Infantry Division at a time.

Fort Pickett was named in honor of George Pickett, a career U.S. Army officer who served during the Mexican-American War. He continued to serve until he was compelled to resign his commission following the Battle of Fort Sumter. Within a month, he was a Colonel in the Confederate States Army, and by 1862, he was a Brigadier General.

Pickett served in numerous campaigns but is likely best known for the ill-fated “Pickett’s Charge” during the Battle of Gettysburg. He stepped across the line to charge nearly a mile to Cemetery Ridge, shouting, “Up, Men, and to your posts! Let no man forget today that you are from Old Virginia!”^[6] The assault was a bloodbath, and Pickett was all but inconsolable. His division was mostly lost, as well as his subordinate commanders. He remained active in the war and was a member of General Lee’s party during the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.^[7]

4 Fort Rucker, Alabama – Edmund Winchester Rucker

Fort Rucker, Alabama, was opened during World War II to train aviators. These days, it’s home to Army Aviation and is the post where all Army Warrant Officers (Including the writer of this article) train at Warrant Officer Candidate School. The base was named in honor of Confederate General Edmund Rucker when it was officially opened in 1942.^[8]

Edmund Rucker enlisted in the Confederate States Army as a Private soon after the Civil War broke out in 1861. He belonged to Pickett’s Tennessee Company of Sappers and Miners, and he was promoted to Lieutenant by 1862. As he progressed through the ranks, he moved to the Cavalry Batallion and was given command of the 1st East Tennessee Legion, known as Rucker’s Legion,^[9] with the rank of Colonel in 1863.

He eventually gained the rank of Brigadier General, though it was never confirmed by the Confederate Congress. Rucker was wounded in action on several occasions and lost his left arm soon after he was captured. His release was secured through an exchange managed by General Nathon Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

3 Fort Polk, Louisiana – Leonidas Polk

Fort Polk, Louisiana, was originally established as a Camp in 1941 for the Louisiana Maneuvers in anticipation of the U.S. joining World War II. Today, it is home to the Joint Readiness Training Center and various combat units, including the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division.

The Camp was named in honor of the Right Reverend Leonidas Polk, the first Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana. He resigned his position with the church to become a Major General in the Confederate Army after personally offering his services to Jefferson Davis, a classmate of his from his time at West Point. Polk committed a significant blunder early in the conflict when he sent troops to Columbus, Kentucky. The state had attempted to remain neutral but ended up requesting federal aid to deal with the occupation. This resulted in Kentucky being effectively ceded to the United States.

Polk commanded troops in the Army of Mississippi and Tennessee, managing to fight in numerous battles. He brought 20,000 men to Georgia while serving as the confederate States Army’s second in command. While scouting outside of Marietta, Georgia, in June 1864, he was spotted by Union Troops, who directed artillery fire at the General, killing him with the third shot.^[0]

2 Camp Beauregard, Louisiana – Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard

Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, was established in 1918 as a training base for the 17th Division in preparation for the United States’ entry into World War I. The Camp is currently operated by the Louisiana Army National Guard, which uses it primarily as one of its main training areas.

Camp Beauregard was named after Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard, a United States Military Academy graduate who served during the Mexican-American War. General Beauregard was the first Brigadier General in the Confederate States Army, and one of the most prominent to arise early in the conflict. He was given the rank of General five months after joining the Confederacy, making him the fifth highest-ranking officer in the CSA. Beauregard commanded his troops to fire the first shots of the Civil War, after his demand that the command at Ft. Sumter surrender to the CSA. For his action, he was known as “The Hero of Fort Sumter,” and he remained popular throughout the war.

General Beauregard survived the war and even though he remained a member of the Democratic Party for the rest of his life, he paradoxically went on to become an advocate for black civil rights and suffrage by supporting the Republican Party. He worked as a railroad executive and was an early promoter of the Louisiana Lottery, which, at the time, was the only legal lottery in the United States.^[11]

1 Fort Lee, Virginia – Robert Edward Lee

Fort Lee, Virginia, was established early in the Civil War as a training camp west of Richmond. It was originally known as Camp Lee, and it grew into a Fort as World War I began intensifying. Today, it is the home of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command, the Army Quartermaster, Ordnance, and Transportation schools.

The Camp was named in honor of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Lee was a prominent U.S. military officer who served during the Mexican-American War. He also worked as the superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point, and though he was initially reluctant, as he opposed secession (despite remaining a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party), he resigned his commission to join the Confederate States Army.

General Lee was one of the first to be given the rank of full General, and he was given command of the forces in Western Virginia.

Lee invaded Maryland and was primarily responsible for the push into Gettysburg, which resulted in one of the most significant CSA defeats of the war. From that point, he commanded forces up to the end of the American Civil War, having lost the vast majority of his Army by April 1865.^[12]

10 Ways Things Would Be Different If The Confederate States Had Won

Punxsutawney Phil will soon make his annual weather prediction for at least the 135th time from Gobbler’s Knob in the mountains northeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On February 2, Phil will use the presence or absence of his shadow to foretell the early arrival of spring—or not, dooming us to another six weeks of winter.

His story, and that of other Punxsutawney Phil Wannabes, may have its roots in Candlemas, a long-ago Christian tradition when clergy would bless and hand out candles that indicated the length and weather pattern of that particular winter. (The candles were later replaced by hedgehogs and later still, groundhogs.) Some say the ritual occurs on February 2 since that is about halfway between winter and spring.

Others say Groundhog Day has its roots in a tradition that indicated if hedgehogs came out of their homes to catch insects on February 2, farmers were certain an early spring would occur. In any case, Groundhog Day events have been going on long before the 1993 movie Groundhog Day in which Bill Murray relives the same day several times until he gets his actions right.

With unbiased sources putting Punxsutawney Phil’s accuracy rate just shy of 40%, and the meteorologists on television being right up to 90% of the time…it is interesting how important the rodent and his forecast have become.

Over the years, Punxsutawney Phil has been the subject of arrest warrants in at least three different states after inaccurate weather predictions, calls for his retirement, inspiration for a lottery mascot, and at least 10 imposters that use the presence or absence of their shadow on February 2 to predict the next six weeks of weather. Read more about these 10 furry imposturous prognosticators below.

Related: 10 Remarkable Facts About Animals Put In Human Perspective

10 Buckeye Chuck

More than 40 years ago, a disc jockey in the central Ohio town of Marion told listeners about a groundhog “staring back at him.” A subsequent contest named the rodent, who lives in Green Camp, Ohio, when not serving as a meteorologist/ The contest winner’s suggestion: Buckeye Chuck.

By the end of the 1970s, he was the state’s official weather-predicting groundhog. These days, Buckeye Chuck provides his prediction to hosts of the same radio station that helped name him all those years ago. They then share the news while listeners feast on sandwiches and hot chocolate. As of his 2020 prognostication, Buckeye Chuck reportedly had a success rate of 67%.^[1]

9 Chattanooga Chuck

Chattanooga Chuck was adopted by the Tennessee Aquarium in 2009 from a licensed wildlife breeder. He made his first weather prediction the following February and soon began making appearances in programs that showcased his ability. When not predicting the weather, Chattanooga Chuck starred in educational programs that taught millions about rodents like him.

Unfortunately, he passed away in 2019 a few months before he could enter his second decade of weather predicting, yet his death at age 10 is much more than the six years a groundhog in the wild can sometimes live—a bit just a bit shorter than the 14 years those in captivity have lived. So far as we can tell, a replacement for Chattanooga Chuck has not been found.^[2]

8 Concord Charlie

Concord Charlie has been predicting how long winter will last since 1978 when a faculty member of a university in West Virginia decided to turn a groundhog into a weather forecaster. These days, the rodent makes his prediction by cellphone or tweet in a conversation with the university’s president, and the latter announces the rodent’s thoughts.

Concord Charlie then seems to scamper away from the spotlight, turning the attention over to the university and a person “who has positively impacted life and culture in West Virginia” over the years, such as football coaches, elected leaders, and writers.^[3]

7 General Beauregard Lee

Most groundhogs are still hibernating when the calendar page turns to February 2. Not so with the groundhogs on our list, like the next one, who has been making winter weather predictions for more than 40 years: General Beauregard Lee, who once called the Yellow River Game Ranch in Lilburn, Georgia, home but now calls Dauset Trails Nature Center in Jackson, Georgia, home.

He gets coaxed out of his hibernation with hash browns from a restaurant chain based in that state. As of a 2020 update, he reportedly had a 94% accuracy rate but has been known to lean on his distant cousin, Atlanta Braves AAA mascot Chopper, to make at least one of his predictions. No word if they split the hash browns when that happened…^[4]

6 Jimmy the Groundhog

The annual weather forecasting event in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, featuring Jimmy the Groundhog, began during the state’s 100th-anniversary celebrations in 1948. The location within the state was chosen because “the groundhog sees his shadow when the sun comes up on the prairie.”

Over the years, Jimmy the Groundhog has spurred changes to birth certificates and drinks and even inspired at least one stuffed-toy groundhog wedding. He also made headlines for more than just being a meteorologist when cameras captured him biting the mayor of Sun Prairie’s ear. Jimmy the Groundhog’s accuracy rate in predicting when spring will arrive is said to have been “extremely high” over the years. However, it remains uncertain how Sun Prairie’s decision to retire a wooden statue memorializing the rodent will have on his track record. Maybe he shouldn’t have bitten the mayor!^[5]

5 Mount Joy Minnie

Mount Joy Minnie is a bit of a rarity in winter-weather foretelling. First of all, she is one of only a few groundhog girls to show off her weather prognostication skills. Secondly, she is a puppet who calls her home in southcentral Pennsylvania a tree stump constructed from chicken wire and papier-mache, forgoing the forest edges, meadows, open fields, roads, streams, and dense forests that most groundhogs call home.

Mount Joy Minnie, who made her first weather predictions in 2008, boasts an accuracy rating of 80% and appears recovered from when a mob angry at her prediction of six more weeks of winter “drowned and lynched” her.^[6]

4 Octoraro Orphie

This rodent, whose handlers have celebrated Groundhog Day for more than 100 years, makes his home near Octoraro Creek in Quarryville, Pennsylvania. He has only taken two Groundhog Days off since 1908—the first was due to World War II, and the second was due to COVID-19.

Those who attend the annual event watch groundhog holes in and around Octoraro Creek for several hours before heading to a nearby lodge to receive Octoraro Orphie’s prediction. According to the Hibernating Governor of the Slumbering Groundhog Lodge, in 2020, Octoraro Orphie was tasked with some additional duties on that February 2. With the Super Bowl also being played on the same day, he set about predicting the weather in Miami for the game (not a hard task) and the winners (we’re sure he went with the AFC).^[7]

3 Shubenacadie Sam

Shubenacadie (pronounced “Shoo-ben-ack-a-dee”) Sam takes the longer part of his name from a park in Nova Scotia, Canada, where he lives. While he follows the vegetarian diet most groundhogs do, he also practices yoga and meditates. His home in the far eastern part of Canada offers him the distinction of being the first groundhog in North America to make a weather prediction each February 2 (LINK 72) and may explain his approximately 45% success rate.^[8]

2 Unadilla Bill

Taxidermied Unadilla Bill got his name when a former Nebraska lieutenant governor named Bill also named the municipality of Unadilla as the Groundhog Capital of the state in 1988. This was the same year that the rodent’s weather-forecasting career started.

However, the groundhog is at a crossroads in his life, having retired in the past year. If you are wondering how a stuffed rodent can be so tired (like we were), we hear that besides being a meteorologist, he often leads Unadilla’s annual Groundhog Day parade while sitting on the hood of a car. His successor, Unadilla Billie, is scheduled to make her first prediction this year.^[9]

1 Wiarton Willie

A groundhog calling itself Wiarton Willie is scheduled to make his 66th weather prediction this year. Located in southwestern Ontario, Canada, the town’s celebration has had several controversies over the years. Reports indicate Wiarton Willie died of a tooth abscess shortly before the 2021 weather foretelling ceremony, but local government leaders kept it a secret for months.

Perhaps no less controversially, some 20 years earlier, another Wiarton Willie froze to death shortly before his big day. Instead of having a weather prediction ceremony that year, town officials held a funeral for Wiarton Willie, but at the ceremonies, a stuffed version of the groundhog was used instead of the one that had recently passed. Let’s hope all goes well this year!^[10]

There is a subtle line between reality and fantasy. So subtle that it’s easy to cross it. But if we do, are we sure we’re going to end up in a fairy tale? Here are some “fairy tale” syndromes that aren’t so charming if you take a closer look and will make you think twice about crossing that line.

10. Rapunzel Syndrome

The syndrome is named after the main character in the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale with the same name. We all know Rapunzel had a wonderful long hair, which she used to help the prince climb up her tower. The people affected by Rapunzel Syndrome, however, probably don’t have such a beautiful hair because… they eat it.

The medical name of this syndrome is trichobezoar, a rare disorder in which the swallowed hair remains in the stomach, sometimes even for years and it happens when someone eats or chews their own hair. When the hair ball becomes large enough, a part of it is eliminated from the stomach, but it remains attached to the hair ball. When the affected person finally gets to the doctor (with a gastric obstruction) and the hair is removed from the digestive system, it comes out as a “rope” of hair which looks like Rapunzel’s hair.

9. Pollyanna Syndrome

Pollyanna is the main character from Eleanor H. Porter’s book. Although she lost her parents and lives by her aunt’s Polly strict rules, Pollyanna always finds reasons to be happy. She finds good things in all bad things that happen to her, being very optimistic.

Like Pollyanna, people who have this syndrome have a very optimistic way of seeing things and life, thinking that no matter how bad things might get, there will always be a positive outcome. But psychologists consider it an unrealistic optimism, which can even be harmful in some circumstances. This type of optimism favors the use of a “magical thought” which reduces risk perception and makes people cheat on themselves by thinking that no matter what, everything is going to be just fine in the end.

8. Munchausen Syndrome

I believe we all read “The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen,” a book written by Rudolf Erich Raspe in which the main character, the Baron Munchausen always lies or distort the truth in his stories in order to get more attention from its audience.

In a similar way, those affected by Munchausen Syndrome invent illnesses and medical conditions they don’t suffer in order to get the attention of their loved ones or of the society. The affected ones have good knowledge of medicine and they can invent credible symptoms in order to determine the medical staff to begin various medical investigations, treatments and give them attention and comfort. The cause of this medical condition is still unknown but it is believed that people who suffers of this psychological condition might have some type of personality disorder. Other theory refers to parental neglect or abandonment which leads patients to invent illness in order to get attention and feelings of care.

7. Superman Syndrome

Although we might think that this syndrome must be associated with people who believe they have superpowers, things are slightly different.

In fact this syndrome is actually a genetic disorder that only affect males (from which the Superman – or Supermale Syndrome). A double Y chromosome is present in their karyotype and their genetic formula is 47XYY. This means that instead of 46 chromosomes like any regular person, they have 47. The condition is sometimes associated with learning disabilities and delayed development of speech and language and the boys have the tendency of being taller than average. But most males doesn’t even know they are affected. They have normal lives and even have children without ever noticing their syndrome. There is however a theory which sustains that affected men develop a criminal behavior due to a higher level of testosterone.

6. Rip van Winkle Syndrome

Also known as Sleeping Beauty Syndrome or Kleine-Levin Syndrome, it is a rare disorder characterized by long periods of sleep associated with hunger, physical instability, irritability and mental confusion. Sometimes the subjects are also affected by hyper-sexuality. The causes of this syndrome are not quite clear yet and it affects mainly teenagers. There were also cases when it affected children or adults.

The patients have sleeping periods of days or even weeks (in some cases it could be months) and they only wake up for eating or going to bathroom. They are unable of performing any other activity and, while awake, they experience confusion, lethargy and disorientation.

It’s just like Washington Irving’s character, the only difference is the people who are affected by this syndrome don’t sleep for 20 years.

5. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

Another psychological disorder is named after Lewis Carroll’s famous book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” In the book the main character, Alice, falls through a rabbit hole to a fantasy world, full of strange creatures, where weird things happen to her. She gets smaller or bigger depending on circumstances and meets various unusual characters.

In the real life, people affected by Alice in Wonderland Syndrome suffer from a psychological disorder which influence the patient’s visual and mental perception. The characteristic of the syndrome is the complete distortion of space, time, distance and dimension, the patient feels disoriented and might even suffer of depression and fear. Another characteristic of the syndrome are the migraines.

The syndrome might be caused by brain tumors, as well as the effect of drugs or mononucleosis (Epstein-Barr viral infection). Some say that even Lewis Carroll suffered from this syndrome and that it might have been the inspiration for his wonderful book.

4. The Mad Hatter Syndrome

Even if the name of this syndrome is associated with the character of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” the syndrome has its origins in the 19th century and is linked to the hat-making industry.

The disease is actually mercury intoxication and is related with the mentioned industry because in that time mercury was a substance used in the process of turning fur into felt. Because of the lack of environmental ventilation and personal protection, the hat-makers were inhaling high quantities of this toxic metal. The mercury accumulated in the workers’ bodies and caused various symptoms such as tremors, hallucinations, weakness, anxiety, lack of coordination and memory loss.

In the present time we are more informed about mercury intoxication, but it is still used in many products, including cosmetics, processed food and even in drinking water. Another common use of mercury is in dentistry. Mercury is one of the most common fillings used in dental health and is known under the name of “amalgam,” so we should be all careful of not becoming Mad Hatters ourselves.

3. Dorian Gray Syndrome

We all know the story of Dorian Gray, a man who sold his soul to the Devil and remains young while a portrait becomes old on his place. But not everybody knows there is also a syndrome with the same name.

This syndrome was mentioned for the first time about 15 years ago and represents a psychological and social disorder that affects individuals excessively preoccupied by their own image and who develop difficulty in facing the signs of age.

The main symptoms are: the fear of physical imperfections, narcissism, psychological immaturity, the denial of getting older and also the obsession for aesthetic products and plastic surgery. There are many possible causes for this syndrome, from genetic causes to the influence of mass media in the individuality.

2. Peter Pan Syndrome

It is easy to figure out this syndrome. It affects men who are afraid of growing up and even if they are adults they still refuse to act like one. Instead they act like children or teenagers and are incapable of assuming any responsibilities, the same as Peter Pan, the character who refuses to grow and prefers to stay in the world of childhood.

The syndrome is more frequent in men, while women are more affected by the Wendy Syndrome, acting like mothers for their partners.

One of the main cause for the syndrome is the lack of affection during childhood. Those people develop the need of being protected even as grown-ups. Even though these men are very unsure and unable to make decisions, they show themselves as very confident people, in most cases even arrogant, in order to disguise their real character.

While the IQ factor of these persons is generally above average, they don’t develop emotionally, living just like Peter Pan, in a world without worries and responsibilities. Fortunately, with the help of psychotherapy, patients can learn how to accept their fears and, finally, become adults.

1. Othello Syndrome

In Shakespeare’s drama, Othello kills his wife as a result of his jealousy. This is why the character’s name was perfect to describe this dangerous syndrome.

Othello syndrome is defined as morbid jealousy and is a form of illusionary disorder. The main theme of the illusion is that one spouse is cheating the other, making the “cheated one” become aggressive and violent. The patients justify their acts with the excuse that they must confront their partner and make them confess their infidelity.

The syndrome can be triggered by other psychological diseases like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, but it can also be a side effect of alcoholism. The patients, just like Othello, represent a risk for their spouses especially if the partners claim to be innocent. Their violent actions can easily lead to homicide.